I'm an admin for a minecraft server where I suspect one of the players has set up a fast cycle redstone circuit. The reason is the server uses what seems to me to be too high of cpu for only one or two players logged in, and lately there always seems to be a bit of lag.

I've found where he had built one before and he said that he wouldn't build one again, but knowing him, it's likely that he build one similar and not "exactly" like before.

So, are there any good ways to find where there is a redstone circuit like that, or better, is there a bukkit plugin that I can use to globally disable such circuits?

edit

Just to be clear, I'm not an op, I'm the full blown server admin (I pay for the VPS) lol. It's a windows server 2008 rc2 server so I have access to all files. It's currently running bukkit so that's why I would like to know about bukkit plugins that would make my life easier.

I did search for bukkit plugins but I couldn't find any "official" ones, which is why I asked for other unreleased or beta plugins. =)

Good question! I can't think of any vanilla solutions myself, but there is probably a Bukkit mod that allows you to do so.
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Kevin YJun 29 '11 at 3:33

You could load it in single-player and run around until it's chunk get loaded out to approximate it's location.
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UllallullooJun 29 '11 at 3:46

2

@Ullallullo: Consider that it could be underground. He can't possibly think to find a circuit hidden well enough from someone trying to hide it.
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NeilJun 29 '11 at 8:03

1

I don't play Minecraft, so excuse my ignorance but... what's the problem with him building a redstone circuit? Does it just cause an undesirable amount of lag?
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WipqoznJun 29 '11 at 12:34

@Wipqozn: The game uses a series of delay switches which could very well slow down the game in large quantities. It's especially disruptive on servers where other players are trying to play as well.
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NeilJun 29 '11 at 13:36

If you have access to the world file you can use a map editor/viewer to get a view of the map, and then do a filter just for redstone, overlay the second image and you will know where all the redstone is, it shouldn't take long to find the clock.

@Kort I don't know, I try not to use them as it's sort of cheating... But anything with "x-ray" removes the need for the overlay but for the overlay method it needs to be 2D
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Ronan FormanJun 29 '11 at 20:34

@Kort It's really a matter of taste. Try a few mapping programs, see which ones are nice to use. In particular, look for the ability to render only specific block ids (i.e. redstone), although that's a pretty standard feature. The wiki has an excellent list of mappers.
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SevenSidedDieJun 29 '11 at 23:13

If you don't have access to the world files or the server configuration, use a custom texture pack that makes all blocks except for the ones likely to be in the mechanism (e.g. redstone) semi-transparent. Then, it's a matter of walking around until you see it: even if it's underground.

You could do it fairly quickly by editing terrain.png in your own custom texture pack, but there are several texture packs that do the same thing (like, for example, Strongestcraft).

I would do that except this world is 130mb now and extends at least 2000 blocks in all directions from 0,0 so it's quite a ways to walk when you can't see what you're running into, lol.
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Kenneth PoseyJun 29 '11 at 20:20

This is a server side Forge (and client side for the admins) mod, and if you have option to use it (turn a vanilla server into a Forge one, or a Bukkit server into a MCPC Plus one), this is THE solution to this problem.

Opis is a Forge mod that allows to profile how much time is spent in each mod, chunk, even mob in the server. It shows the info as overlays over a modified open source minimap mod, and allows for tricks like teleport the admin to the close vicinity of a block or creature causing trouble, mark with a red transparent block the conflicting block, see what Forge mod causes the worst trouble... It works with vanilla or Forge modded blocks, so it can find poorly designed redstone clocks or hopper chains in a heartbeat anywhere in a server.

Direwolf20, a famous youtuber known for modded let's plays and mod reviews, made a video showing this mod:

I can't say I know of any mod to do that, though I can suggest an alternative solution. Tell him that you had suspicions and that you found it. Tell him that either he downsizes it or that you'll destroy it completely. He doesn't have to know you don't know where it is.

It's a bit of a bluff, but he'd have no reason to assume you wouldn't know where it is so it's a win-win situation. If he says he'd downsize it and nothing changes, just ban him.

@Ronan: With a little bit of tact and a dash of sadism.
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NeilJun 29 '11 at 13:37

I did that before and discovered his clock that he had built some weeks ago. This one was nearby and more recent, which of course resulted in his ban. I'm still going to check for others though to be sure that things are working fine.
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Kenneth PoseyJun 29 '11 at 20:18

If the the redstone clock has a lot of redstone torches, use zombe's modpack's cheat function, which allows you to see through blocks. After installing the mod, copy this file to {minecraft folder}/mods/zombe. After you have done this, connect to the server and press Y and then O. This will show you all the redstone Torches(on/off). If you want to see through everything (etc. blocks), press and K (default is I, but I changed it for accessibility)

Note: The config file has colours set for different (redstone) items. Light red for redstone torch(on) and dark red for redstone torch(off).

If you don't have any redstone circuits that you value, use WorldEdit, and do this commands: